Religious issues in The Lion, The Witch, And the Wardrobe

Transcription

1 Religious issues in The Lion, The Witch, And the Wardrobe

2 Clive Staples Jack Lewis ( ) Irish author and scholar of medieval literature, Christian apologetics, fiction. Member of the Inklings (with J. R. R. Tolkien) Raised Christian, became atheist at age13, converted to Christianity at age 31. Best know for The Chronicles of Narnia - over 100 million copies sold. Disney adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grossed US$ 745,000,000 worldwide (Prince Caspian grossed US$ 419,651,000) C.S. Lewis

3 C.S. Lewis Conversion to Christianity "You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

4 Christian Apologetics in The Chronicles of Narnia? In Mere Christianity, Lewis writes A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell [the Great Liar]. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Professor Kirke says to Peter and Susan, There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn t tell lies, and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.

5 Christian themes in The Chronicles of Narnia Death & Resurrection Salvation Forgiveness Repentance Apostasy Faith Creation Fall from Grace Temptation Heresy Idolatry Judgment day Heaven

6 Controversial issues: Racism? Philip Pullman has argued that the Chronicles of Narnia are racist. Richard Abanes suggests this charge is false - that it relates to Lewis s depiction of the Callormenes (Muslims?) in books such as The Horse and His Boy, or The Last Battle. But, does it? Is Lewis s Narnia anti-semitic? If Aslan = Christ, what does that make the evil Narnians?

7 Controversial issues: Sexism? Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia and she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. Is Susan condemned to hell in The Last Battle?

8 Controversial Issues: Disney Disney vs Conservative Christianity - the Disney Boycott ( ) - AFA Family values Subliminal messages

9 Controversy: Disney s Narnia Has The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe been Disnified? Surprisingly, the conservative religious community - the ones who boycotted Disney, who expressed huge levels of skepticism when it was announced that Disney would co-produce The Chronicles of Narnia, have now largely embraced the Disney/Walden Media film version.

10 Theological changes in the Disney film - the Secularization of Aslan? People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly." -- C. S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

11 Theological changes in the Disney film - the Redemption of Edmund? Please, your majesty, said Edmund, I ve done the best I can. I ve brought them quite close. They re in the little house on top of the dam just up the river - with Mr. And Mrs. Beaver. A slow cruel smile came over the Witch s face. Is this all your news? she asked. No, your Majesty, said Edmund, and proceeded to tell her all he had heard before leaving the Beavers house.

12 Theological changes in the Disney film - the Redemption of Edmund? Please, your Majesty, said the Fox. We were given them [by] Father Christmas. What? roared the witch Then she raised her wand. Oh, don t, don t, please don t, shouted Edmund, but even while he was shouting she had waved her wand And Edmund for the first time in this story felt sorry for someone besides himself.

13 Theological changes in the Disney film - Law, not Grace? It means, said Aslan, that though the Witch knew the Deep magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.

14 Theological changes in the Disney film - Law, not Grace? Interpreted the Deep magic differently Religion as a matter of interpretation? Sacrifice written into the Deep magic of Narnia - no implication that the Law can be superceded by a different incantation? Sacrifice written into the Deep magic of Narnia - grace implicit in Law? So - if film is a disneyfied version of Narnia - why didn t Christian critics notice?

15 American Protestantism Old-Testament oriented the law (incl. such things as condemnation of witchcraft and homosexuality) carries more weight than might be expected. Evangelical - emphasis on outreach and conversion so any pop culture artifact with overt Christian themes is embraced as a tool of evangelism - might bring people to God.